A computer hacker was sentenced to 10 years in prison after he pleaded guilty in February to hacking into Internet-phone networks and reselling those services for a profit. Edwin Andres Pena, 27 years old, transmitted more than 10 million minutes of unauthorized Web-based telephone calls, which resulted in the loss of more than $1.4 million to telecommunications companies, prosecutors said.
Streaming video is the most visible sign of how Internet piracy has evolved since the days of Napster and its imitators. The new digital black market combines "cyberlockers," such as Megaupload and Hotfile, which piracy experts say hold stores of pilfered content, with linking sites such as TVDuck and TVShack.cc, that act like an underground version of TV Guide, helping people locate bootlegged TV shows and movies.
The United Arab Emirates is "very optimistic" about reaching an agreement in a dispute with BlackBerry maker Research In Motion before an official deadline, a top Abu Dhabi official said. The UAE has threatened to suspend Research In Motion's BlackBerry Messenger, email and Web browser services from October 11 until the government could get access to encrypted messages.
EU antitrust regulators will scrap two investigations into Apple's iPhone after the company allowed cross-border repair services and eased restrictions on applications for its popular smartphone. The European Commission, the watchdog across the 27-country European Union, announced its decision on Saturday, saying the changes by Apple would allow consumers to choose between different alternatives.
The Justice Department has reached an agreement with six major Silicon Valley companies to settle charges they colluded to keep a lid on wages by agreeing not to poach employees from one another. The proposed settlement, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, bars Google Inc., Apple Inc., Intel Corp., Adobe Systems Inc., Intuit Inc. and Walt Disney Co.'s Pixar Animation Studios from pledging not to "cold call" one another's employees as part of partnership agreements.
The technology industry is being rattled by a quiet and sophisticated malicious software program that has infiltrated factory computers. The malware, known as Stuxnet, was discovered by VirusBlokAda, a Belarussian computer security company in mid July, at least several months after its creation.
The Iranian government agency that runs the country’s nuclear facilities, including those the West suspects are part of a weapons program, has reported that its engineers are trying to protect their facilities from a sophisticated computer worm that has infected industrial plants across Iran. The agency, the Atomic Energy Organization, did not specify whether the worm had already infected any of its nuclear facilities, including Natanz, the underground enrichment site that for several years has been a main target of American and Israeli covert programs.
Companies that violate the rather easy-to-follow requirements associated with free software licenses requirements do so out of ignorance about the rules of engagement. But many companies using free software fear that open-source supporters will become more aggressive and pursue large payments over possible violations.
A Spanish court sided with Google in a dispute with the broadcaster Telecinco, saying Google’s online video-sharing service, YouTube, did not have to screen television clips for potential copyright violations before posting them on the site. The decision, by a commercial court in Madrid, follows a similar ruling in the United States in June, when a judge rejected copyright infringement claims against YouTube by the media company Viacom.
In his first hearing before the House Armed Services Committee, new U.S. Cyber Command head Gen. Keith Alexander offered a troubling window into the threats that Pentagon networks face at the hands of terrorist and criminal syndicates, foreign intelligence organizations, and “hacktivists” intent on infiltrating power grids and financial networks.
The Federal Communications Commission approved the use of unlicensed broadcast airwaves known as "white spaces" that the agency hopes will amount to better quality and longer-range Wi-Fi-like connections for mobile devices. In a unanimous vote, the five-member FCC said the airwaves -- unused channels between TV stations -- will be used for mobile broadband services.
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee grappled over the best path forward toward modernizing the Electronics Communications Privacy Act, CongressDaily reported. "No one would quibble with the notion that ECPA is outdated," Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said at a hearing, but, he added, "The question of how best to update this law has no simple answer."
Apple has been hit with a patent infringement lawsuit by a privately held New Jersey company called Multi-Format Inc. The company claims that Apple violates 20 claims of a particular patent by offering downloadable video content from iTunes.
The sharp growth in extremist websites is making recruitment much easier for al-Qaeda, according to Interpol head Ronald Noble. "The threat is global, it is virtual and it is on our doorsteps," he said.
Canadian Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart said an investigation into the way Facebook’s third-party applications obtain user data is over and that her office was “pleased” with the social networking site’s move last May to make its privacy settings simpler and easier to understand. But the office is still reviewing other complaints that the Internet giant has made some user information available too broadly on the Web.
The Czech Office for Personal Data Protection, or UOOU, reiterated its refusal to allow Google to collect personal data for its Street View mapping service citing legal hurdles and the intrusive nature of the service. "A data [collector] seated outside the European Union is obliged to appoint a representative on the territory of the Czech Republic. Google Inc, an American entity, has failed to do this," Igor Nemec, UOOU chairman, told reporters.
Google filed a civil lawsuit in a court in San Jose, Calif., against rogue advertisers who market prescription pharmaceuticals online in violation of the company's policies. The company alleges that Omar Jackman, of Brooklyn, New York, an individual identified only as "Simon" in Manhattan, New York, and an indeterminate number of individuals to be identified later, used deliberate misspellings of pharmaceutical names to bypass Google's efforts to flag and review ads promoting online pharmacies and prescription drugs through its AdWords advertising program.
Cyber-bullying may be even harder on the victims than physical beatings or name-calling, U.S. researchers reported. And unlike traditional bullies, cyber-bullies seem to be less depressed than their prey, the team at the National Institutes of Health found.
India is in talks with Research In Motion to gain access to BlackBerry corporate e-mails after securing access to instant messages sent via the devices, a senior government source said. India, which along with several other countries has expressed concerns that BlackBerry services could be used to stir political or social instability, had threatened RIM with a ban if it were denied access to data.
Google planned to introduce a new tool called the Transparency Report that publishes where and when Internet traffic to Google sites is blocked, and the blockages are annotated with details when possible. For instance, the tool shows that YouTube has been blocked in Iran since the disputed presidential election in June 2009.
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